The present invention relates to printing presses and more particularly to hoppers.
Gathering devices such as perfect binders, saddle stitchers and mailroom inserters may use hoppers or feeders to collect sheet material. A saddle stitcher or perfect binder may for example collect folded printed materials fed from hoppers or feeders onto a saddle or perfect binder conveyor, respectively, to form a magazine or other printed product. In the context of the present application, the term hopper and feeder are used synonymously.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,125 purportedly discloses moving a hopper and a stack of sheet material from an upright orientation to a tilted orientation. As the hopper and stack of sheet material are tilted, a lower end portion of the stack of sheet material is moved along an upwardly inclined ramp into engagement with a sheet material feed assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,082,724, hereby incorporated by reference herein, describes a signature collating apparatus such as an inserter having a plurality of hoppers delivering sheet materials to receiving locations on a conveyor.
U.S. Publication No. 2006/0103064 purportedly discloses modular signature feeders that include a frame having a base configured to enable the modular signature feeder to be removably attached to another modular signature feeder or a signature transfer assembly associated with a signature collation feeder assembly.